The Malik Report

Updated repeatedly at 4:05 PM: Given the furor regarding the Red Wings' trading of Calle Jarnkrok to Nashville for David Legwand, managerial explanations included, and the Wings' status as an undermanned team heading into tonight's Nicklas Lidstrom retirement ceremony game against the Avs...This move, one of the Red Wings' 4 post-trade-deadline recalls sans a roster emergency--seems...strangely-timed:

Pulkkinen, 22, leads the Griffins and is tied for 13th in the AHL with 49 points (24-25-49) in 58 games this season. The winger paces all AHL rookies in goals and is currently second in the league in scoring among first-year players. The Vantaa, Finland, native appeared briefly with the Griffins last year after his season in Finland concluded, recording one assist in two regular-season games and five points (3-2-5) in 14 postseason contests. Pulkkinen skated in 185 career games with Jokerit of Finland’s SM-Liiga from 2008-13, totaling 128 points (49-79-128). He was named the league’s rookie of the year in 2010-11.

And now the Griffins:

PULKKINEN RECALLED BY DETROIT, HIRSCHFELD SIGNED TO PTO

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Detroit Red Wings on Thursday recalled right wing Teemu Pulkkinen from the Grand Rapids Griffins. In addition, the Griffins signed forward Alden Hirschfeld to a professional tryout.

Pulkkinen, 22, leads Grand Rapids in scoring and ties for second among AHL rookies with 49 points (24-25—49) in 58 games. A native of Vantaa, Finland, Pulkkinen also leads the Griffins and league rookies in goals and plus/minus (plus-19). The 5-foot-10, 185-pound right wing joined the Griffins late in the 2012-13 campaign after spending four seasons with Jokerit of Finland’s SM-Liiga, where he earned 128 points (49-79—128) in 185 career games. Pulkkinen tallied one point (0-1—1) in two regular season appearances and five points (3-2—5) in 14 playoff games en route to capturing the Calder Cup.

Hirschfeld, 25, has skated in three games with the Griffins this season, tallying one assist and a plus-four rating. In 49 games with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, Hirschfeld has captured 29 points (9-20—29) and 14 penalty minutes. Last season, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound forward played in 37 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins and 18 games with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, where he tallied eight points (4-4—8) for each team through 55 appearances.

The Wings will host the Colorado Avalanche tonight at 8 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena, when Pulkkinen could make his NHL debut and become the 141st Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL.

Finishing out a brief three-game home stand before a season-high seven-game road trip, the Griffins will host the Iowa Wild on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.

I don’t think this is strange, it is exciting!! Pulkkinen is better than , Cleary and Andersson in my opinion with the roster increase in place.

Posted by WingedRider from Saskatoon, SK on 03/06/14 at 03:10 PM ET

So was Jarnkrok probably.

That’s ALL I can think of reading this… with Jarnkrok going out, calling up Pulkkinen is…. odd. Just like it was odd for DET to give up a player, a prospect, and a pick for a warm body when the involved prospect could have been called up and done the same thing honestly.

Nothing against Pulkkinen, It’d be neat to get to see him play. However, it just doesn’t really make sense…

...a warm body when the involved prospect could have been called up and done the same thing honestly.

not sure if you’re being incredibly over dramatic simply for the sake of making the point that you still are unhappy Jarnkrok was traded… but you realize that comparing Legwand (second overall pick, over 1000 games with one team, proven NHL leader, gritty, two-way center who is tied as the leading scorer on Nash with 40 points) to an unproven kid who’s not even the leading scorer on his AHL team is absurd. Jarnkrok absolutely could NOT do the “same thing”. one could definitely argue our organizational depth got a bit weaker or that we “overpaid” or whatever… but to pretend that our NHL squad didn’t take a HUGE and much needed step forward is really farsighted. If you notice, Nashville immediately assigned Jarnkrok to Milwaukee, they did not make him their number one center… for a reason. Comparing these two players is just asinine.

This is gonna be cool. I’ve only seen Teemu on the Youtube uploads by the Griffs and by We All Bleed Redd. The rest of the time, some Finnish fans of Teemu’s have uploaded his Holy Slapper vids showcasing his Hull-esque one-timers.

Posted by
SYF
from the C7.R, flyin' low and feelin' mean on 03/06/14 at 05:16 PM ET

Yeah, Khan says it’s 13th forward stuff.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 03/06/14 at 04:06 PM ET

13th forward on the game roster? If that’s the case that means they are dressing 5 D. Who is out?

Then again, maybe Primis really believes that Jarnkrok was ready to step into the NHL (for the first time ever) as Detroit’s first line center (playing that position for the first time ever) for the next few weeks while the Wings’ top 3 centers are on the shelf.

This four call-up rule thing is always so confusing this time of year… I’m guessing this call up is an “emergency call-up” due to Cleary being hurt but not on IR and only having 12 healthy forwards?

If I remember correctly, the one game that Sheahan played last year came after the deadline and it was deemed “emergency” even though they had 12 non-IR forwards. Not sure if this is the same case.

With the way injuries have gone this season, this coupled with Emmerton being sent back down would be a head scratcher if it burns a call up… Wasn’t that the whole point of recalling Emmerton? To have an extra forward down the stretch without burning a call up?

Posted by
SYF
from the C7.R, flyin' low and feelin' mean on 03/06/14 at 05:25 PM ET

Perfection beat me to it but man is the whining getting crazy; you’d think we traded away a bonafide star for a bag of pencil shavings. Instead we traded away a 22 year old prospect who is running out of time to show he’s much more than a good setup guy for better players (remember; all of Järnkrok’s elietserien success came playing with Silfverberg) for a guy who is instantly a top three forward on the team as it sits today and probably #6 if the team were healthy.

The real shame of this is that the acceptance of Legwand will be so brutal from folks like us here and it’s totally undeserved.

Calle is already 22 years old and he is still a year away from playing in the NHL .....at least.

If he was 20-year old, professional rookie, with a half a season in the AHL under his belt, I’d be more concerned. Instead, we have 22 year old with long way to go and a log jam of forward prospects in front of him.

I am a big believer in the notion that if a dog bites, he’ll bite as a pump.

Dasyuk, Frazen, Zetterber, Hudler, and Filppula are the only players that are now top 6 NHL forwards, that Detroit has drafted, that came directly from the European leagues to North American professional hockey since Slava Kozlov was drafted in 1990 (yes 23 drafts, 5 players…..the jury is still out on Tartar but he will probably be 6).

Datsyuk, Franzen and Zetterberg went right to the NHL their first years in North America.

Filppula had 86 points in 90 games in GR when he was 21 and was a full time NHLer by 22.

Hudler had 55 points in 61 games as a 20 year old his first year in GR. He had 116 pts in 92 gms his final year in GR at 22. Hudler was a full time NHLer the next year.

Jarnkrok’s 39 points in 66 games is quite a bit below those marks. And certainly WAY below for a player who was already 22 when he being his North American career.

I think a true future top 6 forward would have lit up the AHL (even while adjusting to the NA game) and by this point in the season, would have demanded, through his play, a role with Detroit given their injuries at center all season.

If he were a top 6 forward, We would or should now be talking about Jarnkrok’s ability to hold up (due to his slight size) in the NHL game. or his defensive play. Instead he is headed out of town…..which begs the question….why? What changed?

The statement that Holland made during his interview on 105.1 about the Red Wing’s scouting staff seeing Calle Jarnkrok as a future bottom six forward explains why he was traded.

If he is going to be a 3/4 line center, he doesn’t have the heavy body, foot speed or grit to beat out the types of players Detroit likes to employ on their checking lines.

Holland is either correct (that he is a bottom 6 guy at best and a probably return to Sweden at worst), or Jarnkrok will be break 25 years of precedent and rise to become a top 6 NHL forward.

right? as the dust settles and I have begun to just accept for whatever the reasons may be, Jarkrok is gone, I’m starting to be left with pure excitement that we unexpectedly added a great player, one that might even be better than we’ve seen in the past since he’s only played on one of the most offensively anemic teams in the league.

playoffs or bust!

it’s not only important for the bottom line, keeping a team in a bankrupt city spending to the max along with teams like Chicago, New York, Montreal, Boston, and Toronto, BUT despite the views of naysayers, in an almost total rebuilding period, the Wings are still considered ‘contenders’ by fellow NHL players. You can’t forget Legwand actually waived a NTC. Alfie signed over the B’s, we apparently were one of only a few teams on Kessler’s NTC waiver list. These guys aren’t fools. They only get one career. Their livelihoods depend on making good decisions with their contracts and team selection. Both the way the Wings treat their vets (something they get derided for on here) and their playoff streak keep the Wings towards the top of the pile for teams players want to play for.

All I can say is that Blashill is doing an amazing job keeping The Grifffs on top of the West while constantly losing top talent to plug Detroits roster holes.

And also, prospect-player-draft pick is HUGE overpay for Legwand, especially in light of yesterdays market. The move may have been necessary, but Holland just seems to be unable
to make good deals under the cap.

Quit viewing it as player-prospect-pick. Eaves wasn’t a player, he was a roster spot. I love Patrick Eaves. I’m one of those crazy people who think he would’ve scored twenty goals had he been given Abdelkader’s spot on the Z-Pav line to start the season. I will really miss seeing his monstrous dog around the Joe in pictures every now and then. But the perception around the league is that Patrick Eaves literally had no value. He was available for free twice and no one snagged him. He was worth less than the headache of fitting him into a roster slot to every other gm in the league.

Detroit traded Järnkrok and a second for Legwand. They also got Nashville to agree to take Eaves to keep roster spots equal. If anything, Nashville may have done Patrick Eaves and those of us who loved the guy a favor by giving him somewhere to play and hopefully earn his next contract.

Posted by
Vladimir16
from Grand River Valley on 03/06/14 at 06:17 PM ET

Quit viewing it as player-prospect-pick. Eaves wasn’t a player, he was a roster spot. I love Patrick Eaves. I’m one of those crazy people who think he would’ve scored twenty goals had he been given Abdelkader’s spot on the Z-Pav line to start the season. I will really miss seeing his monstrous dog around the Joe in pictures every now and then. But the perception around the league is that Patrick Eaves literally had no value. He was available for free twice and no one snagged him. He was worth less than the headache of fitting him into a roster slot to every other gm in the league.

Detroit traded Järnkrok and a second for Legwand. They also got Nashville to agree to take Eaves to keep roster spots equal. If anything, Nashville may have done Patrick Eaves and those of us who loved the guy a favor by giving him somewhere to play and hopefully earn his next contract.

Not to be contentious, but I’ll view it however I want to view it. I respect your opinion on it, and agree with you on what Eaves might have done with more ice time, but that only bolsters my opinion that this was an overpay and a knee jerk reaction.

Either way, I hope Legwand comes in and kicks Dive ass tonight, and makes himself worth that 2nd rounder.

ot to be contentious, but I’ll view it however I want to view it. I respect your opinion on it, and agree with you on what Eaves might have done with more ice time, but that only bolsters my opinion that this was an overpay and a knee jerk reaction.

I should have phrased that more politely. Perhaps, “We should stop viewing it as…” etc. Thank you for not overreacting as tends to be the norm around here.

Anyhow, I think we’re all in agreement that Eaves is a better player than he’s been allowed to show but the league perception of him, sadly, does’t match ours.

Not to be contentious, but I’ll view it however I want to view it. I respect your opinion on it, and agree with you on what Eaves might have done with more ice time, but that only bolsters my opinion that this was an overpay and a knee jerk reaction.

Then I’ll be contentious. Considering Patrick Eaves as nothing more than a throw in for this deal to create a roster spot and cap space for the Red Wings to get Legwand is not an opinion, its a fact. Eaves has cleared waivers this year when anyone could have had him for free TWICE. He was an unrestricted free agent and was not going to be re-signed. Bitching and moaning about how the Red Wings gave up Eaves and he could have been so much more if they just gave him some ice time is ludicrous. He’s been in the NHL nearly 9 years!! We know what he’s capable of by now and its being a career minus player who averages 8 goals a season.

I’ll agree Jarnkrok is a highly regarded prospect. But the Red Wings have been working this him for a while. Ever since he was drafted they have been on him to bulk up and get stronger and that doesn’t seem to have happened yet. He doesn’t appear to be NHL ready. If he were then they would be calling him up ahead of Cory Emmerton and Luke Glendening when they needed a centre. He was solid but not spectacular in the AHL this season. Look at the numbers Teemu Pulkkinen is putting up, especially for being less well regarded that should tell you something. Jarnkrok may develop and hit ever ounce of his potential but it very obviously is going to take some time and I certainly believe that since it is coming from so many sources that Jarnkrok wasn’t willing to wait his turn in the AHL.

Finally the Red Wings will have more than enough cap space this offseason to sign Legwand if they want to keep him. And as for the 2nd/3rd round pick? Who cares at this point? The Red Wings don’t even have enough roster spots for the prospects they have now I think they can live without a pick or two.

For fans of an organization that has been a model of success and consistency in ANY sport for the past 20+ years I am blown away by how many people seem to have no faith that this organziation knows what its doing.

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.